browndog

A brief appearance on "Westside" tonight, looks like the big chase scene is coming next week!

pretty much yes. But leave yourself a bit of suspension travel. Not enough room to flip the axles on top of the leaves, despite what some internet experts will tell you. If you want to go real low then it is a major job. The rear on these sit quite high, you can lose 50-80mm of ride height, depending on where it is sitting at the moment. There were several different springs fitted to these vans, depending on the weight rating. If yours has 5 or 6 leaves in the rear, you can remove one or two, and that will lower it a bit, and soften the back up at the same time. They are designed for carrying heavy loads, and drive quite crap empty, as they sit too high and too stiff in the springing dept. The front not so much. Measure between the axle and bumpstops at either end. Leave yourself at least 50mm of bump travel. You can check out the "lowered" height before doing any mods by loading it up with wheels, paddling pools full of water (yes I have done that!) or anything else heavy You got it running yet?

Fuel pump has two one way valves. Won't work without them! At least the tank had fuel in it, and not full of water and rusty!

fuel pump has non return valve in it, otherwise diaphragm would just pump fuel back to the tank. Fuel line from pump to tank just runs back to the tank, and into the sender unit, no check valves or anything. It has a metal tube which is soldered into the sender unit, which runs to bottom of the tank, with a filter pushed on the end. Try sucking on fuel hose from tank, you should get a mouthful of fuel (not nice!) Or, remove the filler cap, and blow into the tank, fuel should come out of the fuel hose. Check for rusty tank, or (worse) tank full of water. Usually if left sitting for a week or more the line to the tank drains back, and the fuel in the carb evaporates, so takes quite a bit of cranking to drag fuel back up. Sounds like you have other issues though.

Just got the engine crossmember built. I wanted to make a proper crossmember with engine mounts welded to it, rather than the original style setup where the engine mounts just hang off the side of the chassis rails. So I got some 63mm black pipe bent to shape, drew the engine mounts and had them laser cut and folded, and got our fabricator to trim them and weld them up. Really pleased with the result, ties the chassis rails together, and is very strong.

appeared on last nights TV programme "The Dance Exponents" as the band van:

appeared last night on "The Dance Exponents" TV programme as the UK gardeners van

I received an email from photobucket yesterday, saying 3rd party hosting on my account had been temporarily disabled. Basically they want me to pay $399 to restore this service- they can get f$#ked! Please bear with me while I reload the pictures in this thread. Bastards! Edit: pics uploaded to the OS website, normal service has resumed. photobucket go fuck yourself!

exhaust fitted today

Time has been marching on, and I haven't touched the van for ages, as I have been so busy with other things.So I decided to book it in at work, as we have a new fabricator just started, and he is rather good! First job was to make the trans mount, and exhaust system. The trans crossmember is a tubular design, from 1 3/4" roll cage tubing. The exhaust is TIG welded 304 stainless, 2" primaries into 3" main pipe, and large muffler with side exit pipe. Next week will be a new engine crossmember and mounts, to a similar tubular design as the trans mount. Also a swirl pot for the fuel injection, weld in the battery tray on the RH side, wiring, fuel lines, air intake, etc.

I have been slowly working away on this van, and dropped the engine in yesterday. What a bloody mission! The extra height of the supercharger made it REALLY tight to get in there. I had to notch the front crossmember to allow the sump to drop down and clear it, and it is really tight for space in all directions. But it does fit! And no cutting or beating of the floorpan or bulkhead required! There are a few tweaks needed for clearance, but nothing major. Here is a pic of it sitting in place. I have also installed a MK3 Transit power steering box. The steering box was straightforward enough, remove the Mk2 mounting plate and fit the Mk3 version. For the steering column I used the Mk2 outer part, and cut it off where it protrudes through the bulkhead. I fitted the Mk5 shaft to this. And used a coupling from a Mk5 with the 2x UJ's so that I could get rid of the rubber coupling that the Mk3 has, and also keep the steering column on its original axis. There was a little bit more to it than this, but you get the idea. //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/50625-browndogs-supervan-2-yet-another-one/

Sounds good, assuming it is finished by then

gave the old girl a workout a couple of weeks ago, and moved the Sundowner back home into my garage:) It tows really well The NA engine is no more! I pulled it out yesterday, along with acres of really bad wiring! Gave the engine bay a good clean up, and I will fit the power steering box, and prep it for the supercharged engine //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/50625-browndogs-supervan-2-yet-another-one/

pulled the lid off to have a closer look. Here you can see the Eaton M90 supercharger, with throttle intake at the rear. These engines did not run an intercooler, although aftermarket ones are available. Looks like clearance to the throttle body will be tight, otherwise everywhere else looks easy

christmas pressie arrived today on a pallet, looks really good That will make the old girl boogie!

just bought another engine for SV2. Very similar to the one already fitted, but has an extra pulley on top

A more "appropriate" load today, off to a TV shoot early tomorrow morning with another Mk2 in tow

SV2 was bought with the intention of becoming my new tow vehicle, to replace my LDV 400 "police van". I went and got a quote for a towbar to be made for it, and was a bit shocked at the price of $1000 so I thought, "bugger that, I will make one myself" I really wanted a detachable towbar, so I scoured trademe and found a NOS Westfalia kit for a Subaru, which was rated at 1800kgs. I bought this, and set about chopping it into small pieces. In the end I used only the gooseneck, receiver, and a section of the square crosstube. I drew up some templates on autocad for the side and centre brackets, printed them out and a bit of a test fit, then sent the drawing to the shop to have them cut out of 10mm steel plate on the waterjet. The main side brackets needed a couple of kinks to follow the chassis rail,and then another test fit before welding, and they fitted a treat. Got my fabricator to weld them up for me, my welding is okay, but needed the skill of someone really good for this job, as failure is not an option! A can of black Hammerite and looking better: gooseneck and receiver fitted: And installed, still need to make a mounting bracket for the electrical connector: Now you see it: Now you don't And what better way to test it than find one of the most expensive race cars in the workshop, put it on the trailer and take it for a drive 30 minutes across town! Van towed beautifully, and has plenty of power for the job. All up, I came in a few hundred dollars shy of the price I was quoted to make a crappy fixed towbar, and this included me buying a 50mm gooseneck as well, because the kit came supplied with a 1 7/8" gooseneck. So I am a very happy chappy : )

went to friends place to pick up some parts today. He backed out his German firevan so that we could get at the storage area. Thought it was a good opportunity to snap a couple of pics of an early Mk1 (1969) sitting next to a late Mk2 (1985) They are essentially the same van from the screen back.

you having Transit withdrawals since selling the last 2? Let me know when they arrive, I will come for a nosey (and no I am not buying any more!!)

I was going to pick the van up at the end of November, but couldn't wait, so paid the balance and picked it up Saturday. Been driving it around all weekend, and really happy with it. It is very good to drive for an old van, quite tight. Took it on a long run yesterday, and refilled with fuel when I got back. Looks like about 20mpg, or 14l/100kms, which is very good for something that has the aerodynamics of a house, with a fairly large engine. And way better than my current LDV "Police" van, which will be replaced by this as my tow vehicle. Parked up at Hampton Downs yesterday next to my mates "Masport" V8 Mk2. They certainly got a bit of attention there!

yes came with FOMOCO plates, had the option to pay less without, but wanted those! I was thinking more like a Cosworth DFL? Even the owner said he was not super comfortable about that! I had a 3.8 Supercharged V6 from a Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe that I sold about 6 months ago. But no bloody way would that fit in a Transit without a lot of cutting and arsing about! So I sold it. The dilemna is that it goes so well, so I may just leave well alone for now. The owner had the matchbox car too. And gave it to his painter mate one day and said "make my van look like that please!" I have a nice die cast of Supervan (the original one) Might have to get Supervan 2 now:) If you carjam FOMOCO it comes up as "Ford Transit Supervan 2"

It is an Ecotec engine I think, and airbox looks factory. (although I am no expert on anything GM! ) The temptaion would be to find a supercharged V6 and slot it in I am going to use this as a tow vehicle for my race car, so the extra torque would be a good thing. Not that this is lacking in torque or anything, but more is always better!

Yeah a friend of mine told me about the dampers too, reckons he replaced a few of them. It is not shaking as such, or missfiring, it just sounds nasty when you get over 3000rpm. I am told they are all like this. Jackson Foster (who has the cream/brown Mk2) said his is the same. But I will give it a good going over/service once I pick it up anyway

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/50624-browndogs-supervan-2-yet-another-one/ discuss my addiction and suggest possible solutions/medication here